Friday, February 12, 2010

This is a testament to how much more TV influenced my childhood than movies. If I were to pick to most iconic piece of media from when I was a kid, I'd probably go with the HBO "starship" intro.

If I could make that fanfare my ringtone, I would.

Of course it didn't hurt that they were occasionally still using that intro all the way up to 1999. That's probably why I remember it so much.

Also take a look at the Behind the scenes video which bills their little model city as the most elaborate ever built. I know this this is almost 30 years old now, but it's hard to imagine that as "cutting edge."

Although learning how they did the light effects toward the end is pretty amazing. I could figure how to build all that in After Effects, but couldn't fathom how they did it pre-computer. I never would've thought they used some sort of spinning fiber-optic light rig.Of course I never expected they actually built a big, chrome HBO logo either.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

With the yearly Looney Tunes Golden Collection releases drying up in 2008, I was wondering if there would be a chance for the cartoons that never made it on to a Golden Collection set to get released on DVD.

The answer is.... kinda.

In April, Warners is putting out two 1-disc releases of 15 cartoons each, one for Bugs Bunny and one for Daffy Duck.

Obviously these aren't the cream of the crop, or else they would've made it on one of the earlier sets. They all appear to be from the 50's to when the studio shut down in the mid 60's. The only cartoon the stands out to me by name is Lumber Jackrabbit because it was made in 3D during the time when WB shut down animation for a year to feel out the 3D fad.

Cartoons like these might seem second rate to most people, and they probably are, but to

The Looney Tunes have the luxury of still having a fair amount of marketable stuff to sell, just not enough for a 4-disc set anymore. There are scads of Walter Lantz cartoons that'll never see the light of disc because they're not Woody Woodpecker.

Hopefully there'll be more little releases like this that can wring out as many classic cartoons as possible.